Back in July, 2005 the Justice Department launched a criminal investigation into the leak of sensitive information about a new generation of spy satellites. In November an investigation was initiated to discover the source who leaked information about the CIA's secret terrorist prisons. In December a yet another investigation was announced, this time into the leak of the NSA terrorist surveillance program. That the leaks now under investigation were politically motivated, is hinted by person of interest Senator Jay Rockefeller (Dem WV) in his 2003 strategy memo. Here is step one.
1) Pull the majority along as far as we can on issues that may lead to major new disclosures regarding improper or questionable conduct by administration officials. We are having some success in that regard.
At the risk of harming national security, the leakers have sought to paint a picture of an Administration ordering torture and attacking civil liberties in a lustful grab for power. In reality the Administration is guilty of being Republican, but it's apparent that among many in the mainstream press there is no greater crime than this.
With the first of these investigations starting up more than six months ago, neither the leaks not the investigations are news, but with possibility growing to probability that news industry members will be on the hook, the Washington Post has found room on today's front page for a discussion of them.
"There's a tone of gleeful relish in the way they talk about dragging reporters before grand juries, their appetite for withholding information, and the hints that reporters who look too hard into the public's business risk being branded traitors," said New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller, in a statement responding to questions from The Washington Post. "I don't know how far action will follow rhetoric, but some days it sounds like the administration is declaring war at home on the values it professes to be promoting abroad."
Mr. Keller wraps his partisan interests in the cloak of "the public's business", but it's not difficult to see where the public interest has been damaged. A strong case can be made that the terrorists changed how they communicate thanks particularly to Mr. Keller. Shortly after the New York Times editors decided to publish details of the NSA surveillance program, evidence surfaced that terrorists abandoned conventional telephone service in favor of disposable cell phones. We can't hear them anymore.
Jan. 12, 2006 — Federal agents have launched an investigation into a surge in the purchase of large quantities of disposable cell phones by individuals from the Middle East and Pakistan, ABC News has learned.
The CIA/Press war against the White House rages on. The press has the power of the press on its side, and the Washington Post story might be considered the opening statement for the defense in the court of public opinion. Months (no it's actually years) of one-sided reporting have driven President Bush's approval ratings to the lowest point of his presidency. Where such purposeful reporting was once done merely to promote political preferences, there is now much more at stake. Now the goal is to make criminal prosecutions politically impossible by creating the illusion of an administration intent on destroying constitutional protections. The mainstream press is in a dangerous game, one in which our national defense secrets are game pieces.
For more reaction to the Post article, check out AJ Strata, Captain's Quarters, JustOneMinute, MacRanger, and Power Line.
Comments